Track-gage.



No. 731,097. I PATENTED JUNE 16, 1903. A. M. GARLSEN.

TRACK GAGE.

APPLICATION FILED 001.13, 1902.

N0 MODEL.

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UNITED STATES ANDREIV M. CARLSEN, OF ST. PAUL,

Patented June 16, 1903.

PATENT FFICE.

MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO FRED MAHLER, OFST." PAUL, MIN- NESOTA.

GAGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Iatent No. 731,097, dated. June16, 1903.

Application filed October 18, 1902.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ANDREW M. CARLsEN, a citizen of the United States,residing at St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Track-Gages; and Ido declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description ofthe invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon,which form a part of this specifica-' tion.

My invention relates to improvements in track-gages of the class adaptedto be secured to a hand-car for indicating automatically if the rails ofthe railroad are spread or closed as the hand-car is propelled along therails in the usual manner; and the objects of my invention are, amongothers, to provide an efficient, inexpensive, durable, and accuratetrack-gage of said class, as will be more fully pointed out in theclaims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a top or plan view of a smallportion of a hand car with my track-gage secured on it. Fig. 2 is adetail rear elevation of the dog lin Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a side elevationof a handcar with my track-gage secured. upon it. Fig. 4 is a front endelevation of the body of the car in Fig. 3 and the track-gage securedthereon. V Fig. 5 is a top view of the end of Fig. 4 directly above it;Fig. 6 is a modified top view of the end of Fig. 4 above it. Fig. 7 is abottom View of Fig. l with the bottom of inclosure S and all parts ofthe car removed ora bottom View of the central portion of the gage as itlooks without any covering-plate underneath its mechanism.

Referring to the drawings by letters of reference, A designates therails of a common railway.

B is a hand-car of common construction placed upon the rails.

0 represents the handles by which the car is carried by the workmen toand from the. track. These handles are usually formed of the projectingends of the side timbers D of the car.

E is the platform of the car, on which the Serial No- 127,045. (Nomodel.)

workmen and section foreman stand and drive the car. This platform isusually elevated some above the side bars D by the crossbars F. r

At each side of the car I secure by bolts. G a bracket H, preferably tothe side bars D, some distance back of the handles 0, so thatthelatterwill not be obstructed. Each bracket is formed with adownwardly pointing straight arm or horn H and an upwardlypointing hornH having a shoulder or recess H I is a bar constituting the main frameof the gage. This bar extends across the front end of the car and is ateach end provided with a downwardly-hanging arm J, provided with threeloops K K K of which K is let upwardly upon the horn H until loop K getsabove and drops down about the horn H and resting upon the shoulder Hthereof prevents the loop K from getting disengaged from the lower hornuntil the u pper loop is raised by the operator above and disengagedfrom the upper horn for the purpose of removing the gage from the car,leaving only the brackets H on it. The loop K is formed upon theopposite side of the arm J nearits bottom end and serves to guide thetransversely-moving arm L, which at its lower end carries a revolubleroller M, adapted to roll along the inner edge of the rail. The arm L isa vertically-disposed portion of a horizontal bar N, sliding in loops orguides 0, provided upon the frame-bar I. The two bars N thus slide inline with each other with their adjacent ends N, Fig. 7,-some distanceapart, which distance is of course decreased or increased according asthe rails are closed or spread from their normal position, as the rails,if closed in an inch, for instance, will shorten the distance by closingthe rollers M, and the springP will spread the rollers, if the rails arespread. Said springP is preferably formed of goodspring-wire in a bowshape and with one or more coils P upon its body to give it thenecessary flexibility, although the limited space in which it iscontained will IOO .finger remains at O.

of the mechanism. This body-piece is secured by the screws or rivets Tto one of the guidebars N, while the rack R is secured upon the otherbar N by the screws or rivets T. The dial-plate U is secured by screws Vto the shell S and to the bar N, that is secured to said shell. Theshell may also preferably be cast'integral with the dial and its numbersand graduations and secured to one of the bars N, and the bottom plate5' secured to the shell after the mechanism is put in, or, what is equalthereto, the shell and its bottom may be formed in one piece, secured inplace, mechanism put-in, and finally the dial and the pointer Z put on.

X represents a suitable frame in which is journaled the arbor or shaftY, which projects upwardly through the dial and carries secured to itstop the dial-finger Z. The frame X may be secured to either the top orthe'bottom of the shell. In the present instance it is shown as securedby screws d to the dial forming the top of the shell, and it is formedwith a supporting-arm Z) for thespring P to rest on, which is especiallynecessary, if the shell is made without the bottom "plate S.

Upon the shaftY is secured a cog-wheel d, meshing with the rack R.

Upon the right and left halves of the dial are provided graduated andnumbered scales increasing in opposite directions'from the centralpoint(marked 0,) and marked one of them Spread and the other Closed, oron the drawings SP and CL, respectively, which refer to an abnormalspreading or closing of the rails of the road, while 0 indicates thenormal position of the rails.

Secured to the dial-shaft Y, or preferably formed integral with thedial-finger, is a lever 2', having at its free end an upward projection3.

'm is a stop or pin projecting upwardly from the dial.

m is a dog or lever (best shown in Fig. 2) pivoted near its middle tothe frame-bar I, though it may as well be pivoted to the dial, andhaving at one end an upwardly-projecting tooth m, and at the other end aside projection '11, forming also a weight to hold normally down thatend of the lever.

The operation of the device is as follows: The spring P presses therollers M at all times againstthe rails, and as long as the latter arein their normal position the dial- If the track is much curved to oneside or the other, one roller will be pressed inwardly some by the outerrail and the opposite roller will be pushed outwardly to the sameextent; but this motion will not affect the dial-finger, since it andthe entire mechanism in that case simply moves with the two bars N; butif the rails are closed the rollers M will compress the spring P andcause either the rack R to roll the cog-wheel cl or the cog-wheel toroll on the rack, (because it is mounted on a shaft journaled in a shellsecured on one of Closed, and if spreading of the rails permits thespring P to force one or both rollers in an outward direction the rackand cogwheel will act in the opposite direction and throw thedial-finger or pointer toward the word Spread, and the scales willindicate the extent of the closing or spreading, preferably in inches,half-inches, and quarterinches of actual spreading or closing of therails, though the scales on the dial may be much magnified, so as to beeasier to read. When the. car passes over a switch, the man attending tothe gage puts his foot against the projectionj of the lever 71 and holdsthe latter against the projection m of the dog,-as in dotted lines i,thereby preventing the spring P from spreading any of the rollers M intothe switch, and if the car is going over a road-section recentlyexamined the operator swings the dog Z so as to let the lever 7 passbeyond and be locked by the tooth m of the dog, as in dotted lines ithereby holding the rollers slightly away from the rails, so as not towear their bearings unnecessarily nor impose unnecessary resistance tothe moving of the car. .When the gage is again to be thrown intooperation, the operator simply puts his toe under and raises the weight'n of the dog, so that the tooth m gets below the lever i, which is thenthrown to its normal position by the spring P.

Among other modifications which I may make without diverging from thespirit of this invention I may in a cheap grade of the device dispensewith the dog Z and simply use a pin m in the dial or other point tolimit the throwing of the lever 71 when coming to a switch. I may alsodrop the loops K and K all upon the upper horns H which for that purposemay be made higher, and the whole gage above the handles 0 may thenstand higher up, and by making the downward extensions J of theframe-bar with rearwardlyprojecting ribs q (shown in dotted linesin Fig.3) the lower horns H may be dispensed with. The loops K may be wide, asin Fig. 6, to allow endwise motion of the frame-bar where such motion isdesired. In the present construction, and perhaps in all gageshavingasimilarframe-bar, the play in at least one of the end loops willenable the brackets H to be readilysecured and used upon hand carsvarying considerably in width. The rack R may be secured to the bar Noutside the shell S and only have its toothed portion projecting intothe shell through a narrow opening, like 1', so that the mechanism isclosely covered against flying sand, snow, rain, the. The guiding-loopsK besides guiding the arm L against flapping back and forth, alsoregulate the extent of spreading and closing of the arms, so that whenthe lever 2' is held sidewise while going through a switch one rollerwill not get all the inward action of the lever while the other rollermay run into the switch, because when one arm L is drawn by the lever'11 to the inner end of the loop K the other arm L is bound to furnishthe rest of the inward movement demanded by the lever t. The last-namedobject may also be attained by pins t in the sliding bars (see Fig. 3)adapted to stop against theloops O on the frame-bar. The spring P may beof any other suitable construction than that shown.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-- 1. In a track-gage adapted to be carried by acar, the combination with brackets securable to the car and havingdownwardly and upwardly projecting horns, of a track-gage having uponits frame loops adapted to be passed upwardly upon the lower horns, andupper loops adapted to thereafter go upon the upper horns, and suitablemeans supporting the gage at proper height and preventing the upperloops from going so far down as to bring the lower loops below the lowerhorns.

2. The combination with a handcar, of brackets secured to'the sides ofthe car, and having vertically-disposed arms or horns, a track-gagehaving upon its frame loops adapted to embrace the horns, said loopshaving a play on the horns in transverse direction of the car to allowfor variation in the width of cars.

3. In a track-gage of the class described, the combination with aframe-bar adapted to be secured in transverse position upon the car, andhaving the downwardly-projecting end arms J with the elongatedguiding-loops K thereon, of outwardly spring-pressed arms guided in saidloops and having their lower ends adapted to move along and in contactwith the inner edges of the rails, and an indicator operativelyconnected with the upper ends of the arms, to indicate closing andspeading of the rails.

4. In a track-gage of the class described, the combination of aframe-bar securable across the end of a car and having at each end adownwardly-projecting arm with the guiding-loop k thereon, and upon itsmain body the guiding-loops O, of two sliding bars N, sliding in theloops 0 and having down- \vardly-projectin g arms L guided in the loopsK and extending to the inner edges of the rails, a spring pushing saidbars N outwardly to hold the arms in contact with the rails; the rack Rcarried by one of the bars N, the grad uated dial U carried by the otherbar N, a cog-wheel meshing with the rack and having its shaft rotatingin journals or bearings carriedwith the dial, a dial-finger or pointersecured on said shaft above the dial, substantially as and for thepurpose set forth.

5. In a track-gage of the class described, and suitably framed, thecombination with two sliding spring-spread bars adapted to engage theinner edges of the rails, a graduated dial and a dial-finger carried byone of said bars, a cog-wheel secured on the shaft of the dial-linger, arack carried by the other sliding bar and meshing with the cog-wheel;said dial-finger being formed on the other side of its pivot or shaftinto a foot-lever 11 having the'projection j, and means for limiting themotion of said lever when the bars are partly retracted from the rails.

6. In a track-gage of the class described, and suitably framed, thecombination with two sliding, spring-spread bars adapted to engage theinner edges of the rails, a graduated dial and a dial-finger carried byone of said bars, a cog-wheel secured on the shaft of the dial-finger, arack carried by the other sliding bar and meshing with the cog-wheel; alever or arm, t', secured to the shaft of the cog-wheel, and a stop anda locking device for holding the leverqlto one side against the force ofthe spring when so desired, for the purpose set forth.

7. In a track-gage of the class described, the combination with a pairof arms springpressed against the inner sides of the rails, an indicatoroperated by said arms to show the spread or closed condition of therails, and a foot-operated lever operatively connected with the arms toprevent their spreading when so desired and a foot operated weighted dogto hold the lever against the force of the spring, for the purpose setforth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ANDREW M. CARLSEN.

Witnesses:

JOHN R. RowLEN, FRED E. MAHLER.

